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Abstract: Those who value free access to law need to respond to the increasingly global nature of legal research, and the fact that most countries still do not have effective facilities for free access to law. The free access to law movement, centred around University-based Legal Information Institutes (LIIs), is assisting and encouraging the development of free access law facilities in many countries in the developing world. While doing so, it is also creating a global network of interconnected free-access legal research facilities on the Internet. This network is becoming comparable to the global legal research facilities provided by the multinational legal publishers. The free access to law movement is explained: its history, methods of cooperation, and Declaration on Free Access to Law. Public policies to maximise free access to law are advanced to explain why it is not good enough for governments to provide access to law through their own websites. Instead, a 'competitive model' is advanced, stressing the right of others to republish legal information. The task of developing global legal research is explained through categorisation of the elements of the visible and 'hidden' webs of legal information, and the implications this has for tools that LIIs must develop. This helps explain the modestly decentralised global free access to law network which is emerging, based on independent national and regional LIIs, with a smaller number of 'hubs'. The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII), one of the hubs of this network, is explained in detail, particularly as a locus of five strategies to advance global free access to law. It is a Legal Information Institute in its own right with a focus on international content such as the decisions of International Courts and Tribunals. It is an 'incubator' of LIIs, hosting collections of national databases which may and have matured into separate LIIs. Third, WorldLII is an integrator of LIIs, providing not only a combined search of 439 legal databases from 55 countries (and growing by 25% per year), but also far more targeted searches such as those limited to one type of document (eg legislation) drawn from all its collaborating LIIs. More sophisticated forms of integrations are becoming possible as LIIs cooperate more closely, such as cross-LII hyperlinks, and global 'Noteups' of legislation and cases. WorldLII is primarily an English language interface to all LII content, but aims to go beyond that in a number of ways. Interfaces in other languages to the shared data set will better emerge elsewhere, but WorldLII may have an interim role. Finally, WorldLII is a platform for more systematic global legal research beyond the content held by its collaborating LIIs. Its tools are the WorldLII Catalog and WorldLII Websearch providing access to over 17,000 law websites worldwide, and 'Law on Google' (translating WordLII's searches into Google's search language and limiting their scope to law).
free access law, legal research
Abstract: The Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII) is a free access legal research facility, developed by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), in conjunction with partners in various Asian countries. Launched in December 2006, AsianLII now includes 120 databases from all 27 Asian countries, from Mongolia in the north to Timor Leste in the south, Japan in the east to Pakistan in the west. It includes about 150,000 full text cases, and over 15,000 items of legislation, plus law reform reports, a few law journals, and other materials. All of this content may be searched simultaneously, and individual country collections, or individual databases, may be searched separately. Some of the larger collections are from the Philippines, India, Singapore, and (for legislation) Timor-Leste and Vietnam. AsianLII also includes Hong Kong databases from HKLII, and Papua-New Guinea databases from PacLII, and Korean and Taiwanese databases from GLIN at the Law Library of the US Congress, exemplifying cooperation between members of the Free Access to Law Movement. AsianLII already receives over 50,000 'hits' per working day. This paper discusses the challenges involved in building AsianLII, particularly in a region of such linguistic diversity: its rationale, technical features, approaches to partnerships, migration of technology and content control, and sustainability.
Free access law, legal research
Abstract: The importance of free access to essential legal information to the rule of law is outlined, and the role of Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) in providing such access. The main features of the new Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII) are described, and its differences from pre-existing systems. HKLII is the first LII in Asia: a free, independent, and non-profit Internet facility providing relatively comprehensive coverage of the essential legal information of a jurisdiction (Hong Kong). This paper describes HKLII's first year (July 2001 - July 2002), from the first discussions on its possible creation to the installation of its own server in Hong Kong. It explains that the development of HKLII has been made possible by the policies of the HKSAR government and judiciary supporting access to legal information. Future development of HKLII is discussed, and its potential impact on free access to legal information elsewhere in China and in Asia. HKLII is a partner in the development of the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII). The scope and facilities of WorldLII are described briefly, and its relationship with HKLII is used to demonstrate how legal resources from one jurisdiction can be incorporated into a global and comprehensive approach to free access legal research.
Internet, computerised legal research, Hong Kong, legal information institute, access to law
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